The Eclectic review. vol. 1-New [8th], Том 4,&nbsp;Част 1

mind. He assumes that it did not owe its origin to the traditional 'fragments of a Divine Revelation. This mythological scheme, which he says escaped, the notice of Dr. Blair, the abbé Cesarotti, and Mr. Macpherson himself, is no other than the ghosts or shades of departed heroes, which the Garlic bard occasionally invokes, and represents as hovering near their living descendents, like the fleeting mist, as it curls before the wind. But surely the ghosts were well known to all these gentlemen, long before the Professor thought fit to discover that they constitute a mythological scheme; we therefore cannot think the discovery a proof of the Professor's acuteness, or a service to literature. Art. VI. The Life and Writings of the late Henry Tanner, of Exeter;

80 years of age, and a daughter; and it was partly with a view to obtain for them some little pecuniary assistance, that Dr. Hawker was induced to publish these papers of their pious relative, restricting himself, in the office of editor, from introducing any thing of his own but a short advertisement, and here and there an explanatory notice.

The papers consist of Mr. Tanner's brief memoir of part of his own life, spiritual reflections made in a journey from Plymouth to Exeter, 'and back again to Plymouth, and an extract, to the extent of seven months, from his diary. They are all equally written with a simplicity which fully discloses the character of the man: and it is a character which cannot be contemplated without great respect, by any one who knows how' to value patience in suffering, habitual piety, and the twohanded diligence which can so prosecute both secular and religious labours as never to neglect either in the attention to the other, and as to prevent any incongruity in their being united, by maintaining the great principle of serving the Divine Being equally in both.

These compositions afford, throughout, a very strong illustration of the positive advantage arising from sincere piety, to a man possessed of very few other sources of satisfaction, and attended by many causes of grief. The greater part of Mr. Tanner's life appears to have been spent in circumstances very little favourable to felicity; and one considerable portion of the earlier half of it was oppressed by one of the severest calamities which a good man can suffer, the obdurate progressive wickedness of the person at that time his nearest relative. He was relieved at length from the miserable connection, but in a manner which for a while subjected him to a still keener anguish than all that had been inflicted before..

• My poor unhappy, wretched wife, one morning, left our youngest child, then an infant at the breast, with the care of a neighbour, for a few minutes, as she said, promising to return very shortly. The whole day passed, and she came not. In the evening, on my return from labour, the neighbour brought me the child, informing me of the circumstance. I lifted my eyes to heaven, and cried out : Well! the Lord knows best, when it is enough. I took the babe, thanked my neighbour for her kindness, and went to my room, with a heavy heart. I put the child to rest, and betook myself to prayer, finding my soul more than usually drawn out, concerning my poor wandering partner, that the Lord would yet shew mercy to her, and grant me a suited conformity to his holy will

In the morning it became necessary, in order to follow my work, to provide a nurse for the child : so that requesting the kind neighbour. to watch by my child, for a short space, I went forth in quest of some person, to take this charge. In crossing a lane called Howe's Lane, my wife was coming down, as I entered it. She first saw me, before that I saw her, and she turned back, and ran up Holy Cross Lane, opposite to it. The moment I saw her, I called to her, and pursued her, but she outran me, and as she passed the corner of that lane, and entered Comber's Lane, she turned herself round, lifted her hand, and said, “ You need not run after me;" which were the last words I ever heard her speak; the last sight I ever had of her. I continued running, but saw her no more. . " " About a fortnight after, one of her old companions in iniquity, came to inform me of the sad end which followed. It seemed from this woman's account, that she left Plymouth, in company with an old marine, just paid off, for Ireland. The account she gave of herself to this woman, at the Barbican stairs, on stepping into the boat, was truly distressing. She confessed that her life was truly miserable. She did not, she said, leave her husband and children, by way of seeking pleasure, ease, or comfort ; these were gone for ever : but, that when she reflected on her situation, and looked back to her former state ; when she thought of her husband's kind treatment and admonitions, and considered how she had prostituted herself to this abandoned life, she was ashamed to be seen, and cared not what became of herself.'

It was some time after her departure, that I learnt the sad, and most distressing event, which terminated my poor wife's miserable life.

• It appeared from the tidings brought by one that escaped (though I never saw him) that while the ship, in which my wife Aed, was crossing the channel to Ireland, a storm arose, and the ship foundered ; and the poor guilty sinful creature, my wife, among many others, perished in the waves.'

Mr. Tanner relates with the utmost ingenuousness the im. portant change of his character, commenced on hearing a sermon of the pious and eloquent Whitfield, to which he resorted as a ringleader of blaspheming persecutors; with various particulars of his mode of life, his poverty, his distresses on account of his spiritual concerns, his lapses in religious character, and the train of circumstances which led him to become at length a preacher. No man, was ever more free from interested motives in assuning this office; for he preached regularly in one situation eighteen years without receiving
any pecuniary advantage whatever, and was content with an exceedingly insignificant salary during the remainder of his life, and even after he was beconie too infirm to continue his manual labour, which he had prosecuted with unabating industry as long as he was able. It is indeed difficult to avoid thinking he did this longer and more unremittingly, than his religious connections should have permitted, unless they were poor in the extreme. What wonder will be felt by some of our well-stalled teachers, who wear (teretes atque rotundi) the finest of non. con. cloth, and have a very large calendar of saints' days of the festive kind, to hear of a man who preached four or five times a week, laboured at his manual employment till oppressed with fatigue by the evening of almost every day, even when approaching to old age, and notwithstanding all this was sometimes doubtful on the Saturday whether a dinner could be provided for the Sunday?

The Diary describes in the plainest language a mind habituated to affliction, deploring the slowness and difficulty of Christian attainments, and referring in an unusual degree every concern to the divine disposal, in the wisdom and mercy of which it maintained an immovable confidence. There is such a complete samneness throughout this diary, that we think the editor would have incurred no blame if he had closed the extract at the end of three months instead of seven.

The whole of it exhibits one signal circumstance of practical superiority over most Christians, and most ministers. -Mr.'T. rose often by 4 o'clock in the morning, generally before 5, even in the winter.

We know no reason why a man should not have very good thoughts on the road between Plymouth and Exeter; and we are certain that no man ever tried more diligently for it than Mr. Tanner. With all possible respect for our worthy friends in that quarter, we think it may really be doubted whether any of them ever made so resolute an effort for this purpose, in walking, riding, or driving, between the two places before mentioned. Every object and occurrence which presented itself to the traveller, was made to suggest some spiritual analogy, which was pursued and dilated in a manner (allowing for the great difference between a cultivated and an uncultivated mind) that bears a distant resemblance to Hervey's Meditations. Many of these spiritual analogies will of course be far-fetched, and not very judicious; but we have it on such good evidence that many worthy men carry their minds miles and leagues to very little purpose, on the roads of each county of England as well as on those of Devonshire, that we are inclined to be exceedingly lenient to what may sometimes be a forced method of getting instruction, and an uncouth manner
of recording it. It is a question for the consciences of our readers, whether their thoughts are always so well employed in their walks, as those of the traveller who makes the following reflections,

My way lay through a church-yard. The church stood at some con. siderable distance from any dwelling. I stopped and reviewed it a little. Its situation bore an awful aspect, surrounded with dead bodies of men and women, who once stood up to worship God, and must hereafter, by the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God, be called up from their dormitory, to take their doom, before that tremendous Judge of quick and dead, who will give to every man according to his deeds. As I viewed the church, I was astonished to think of the ignorance of mankind under the character of Christians, who, like the Jews of old, cry the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are we; so people point at such a pile of building as this, which is no more than mortar, stone, and wood, and very strenuously cry the church, the church!, It appeared to me like a house uninhabited, very lonely indeed ; but glory be to God, I was led to see that the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands, Acts vii. 48. The Apostle says to every believer, Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you, 1 Cor. iii. 16. and your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, chap. vi. 19. and again, Ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said I will dwell in them, and walk in them : I will be their God, and they shall be my people, 2 Cor. vi. 16. And the Apostle Peter tells us of what materials the church of Christ is built, Ya also as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, 1 Pet. ii. 5. And when Paul and Barnabas were going from Antioch to Jerusalem, they were brought on their way by the church, Acts xv. 3. Then I blessed God that He taught me that Christ's true church was founded and built on himself, the rock, Matt. xvi. 18. And all Christ's true worshippers worship Gord, (whether in this house, or any other,) in spirit and in truth.

“ Having written my minutes, I set out again on my journey as fast as I could, it being winter, very dirty, wet and cold; my thoughts were di. rected to meditate a little on the season. I was led to see that winter (though not so comfortable and pleasing to the flesh,) was as useful and profitable as the summer; for in the womb of the earth the corruption of the old seed is the begetting or production of the new; and as it springs up, the blade is prevented from displaying that gaiety, splendour, and vigour, which otherwise it might have done, by reason of the frost, snow, and cold : yet, although it doth not grow tall above the earth, its root spreads under the earth, and shoots forth more blades for a larger increase in harvest. In the progress and efforts of nature, I saw the works of divine grace in my own experience ; for when the seed of grace was first sown in my heart, it soon made a promising appearance ; but, alas ! winter quickly cane, and frowned upon me. I then cut a very mean figure in the church, and less in the world. Still, blessed be God, I found it was rooted in my heart, and spread in divine knowledge, under the teachings of the divine Spirit : and I grew strong in the Lord; in hearing the word, digesting it, secret ejaculations, and meditation ; so the production of that blessed seed sown of God in me, sprung up in many blades, and ears, and I trust will end in a plentiful harrest."

From this specimen it may be rightly judged, that the volume is better adapted to gratify a particular class of Christians, than to promote religious improvement on the large scale. The venerable writer died March 24, 1805, aged 87. Art., VII. A System of Operative Surgery, founded on the Basis of Ana

tomy Vol. I. By Charles Bell. pp. 448. Price 18s. bds. Longman and

Co. 1807. CONSIDERING the very accurate knowledge of Anatomy,

and of the principles of Surgery, which is essentially necessary to him who presumes to perform the capital operaLions, there is reason to rejoice that they are comparatively so rare as generally to fall into the hands of the most eminent men in the profession. But this cannot always be the case; in many situations remote from the schools of surgical practice, in naval engagements, on the field of battle, and in pro. vincial places, there is sometimes a sudden occasion for efforts of superior skill and address from persons imperfectly tutored by experience. To surgeons who have had little opportunity of exercising their judgement in cases that require decisive and difficult measures, and indeed to all young practitioners, such a work as Mr. Bell's will be a valuable acquisition. They may consider it as performing the functions of a skilful companion, attending them to the scene of operation, ready to direct their judgement, and guide their hands, in most of the perplexities to which they may be reduced. It is designed says the author, • to present to the student, and to the surgeon, such clear, short, and strong views of the objects of our operation ; of the manner of operating; and of the difficulties which may unexpectedly present themselves. as an experienced surgeon would wish' to impress on the mind of one in whom he is much interested-such a view, in short, of operative surgery, as, without putting aside the information gained in general study, may guard against the distraction of difficulties and doubts, when the knife is actually in the hand.' p. viii.

The work commences with observations on wounds; in which those distinctions are noticed which arise ist. from the instrument, and the degree of force with which the in." jury is inflicted; and, 2dly, from the part which is struck. The following observations on wounds accompanied with contusion, are here given, not only as a specimen of our au. thor's manner, but as containing that kind of information which is likely to be of use to general readers.

• If a man has been struck on a fleshy part with a mallet, or if he has been struck with a brick-bat; or if he has been thrown from his horse, and has fallen on his buttocks--the effects are these : a bruising of the soft parts; an injury and bepumbing of the nerves ; and a rupture of the